(Is It Working checks that your SSL certificates are not expiring, and that your background server processes are running as expected)

I admit – I had hopes that it would be a huge instant success with hundreds or even thousands of users – and I’d be instantly rich 🙂

via Giphy

Sadly this didn’t happen. Folks are using IsItWorking – but the numbers are not huge.

On a related note, EU tax law has an annoying ‘feature’ where if you sell a single pound worth of digital services, you need to register for sales tax and send reports every three months.

I’m allergic to that kind of admin.

So, given that I don’t want to do the admin, and that it would be a chunk of work to add a payment system to Is It Working – I’m not going to.

This is not to say that I’ll never charge – but if I do start charging, I’ll give reasonable notice, and I won’t charge current users more than $1 / month for 10 checks.

This also means that I’m not doing significant work on Is It Working. I’ll keep it running because

I think it is cool

I use it for my own purposes

Of course – if you have a feature you’d like to see, I’m happy to add features on a sponsored basis.I hope Is It Working will still be useful for people. If you like it – please tell your friends.Perhaps I’ll still be rich some day 🙂

Let’s jump straight in. I mostly use notifications to keep my UI up to date. That means ViewControllers end up with a bunch of observers that need to be activated and de-activated with the ViewController lifecycle

The first App I changed is Icon Tool. This is an incredibly simple app that lets developers generate icon assets for iOS or Mac OS apps.

Because the app is so simple, I only wanted to give a short trial. Just long enough for you to see how it works. The relevant app store rule is:

3.1.1 In-App Purchase:

Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day Trial.”

So, I created a 1-day Trial IAP item and submitted my app. It was rejected with the reason:

‘We found that your app includes an in-app purchase free trial period, but the free trial period is shorter than the minimum 3 days.’

I have asked for clarification on where/if the 3 day rule is documented and got the response:

‘We understand that you may not agree with the feedback we have provided. However, to ensure App Store customers a safe and enjoyable experience, all apps must comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.’

I have no argument with this statement. My issue is that the 3 day rule doesn’t exist in the published guidelines

I submitted an appeal essentially asking for clarification on whether this was really a rule, and if so – where/whether it was published.

The appeal responded with a section of text which did indeed describe the 3-day minimum. That text isn’t in the published guidelines though (and frustratingly, I didn’t save it).

It’s a fair cop. We use Google’s firebase library, and we hadn’t realised that this library uses the advertising ID.

The fix was simple. We had to update the privacy policy, make sure that the store listing points to the privacy policy, and add a link in the settings of the app which opens the privacy policy. In other words – as far as users are concerned, nothing much changed.

I have no objection to the rule – but removing the app from the store is massive overkill.

Apple deal with this kind of issue with a message to the developer that then need to submit an update within (say) 7 days. Surely Google could adopt a similar approach for minor violations.